Yes, it is like being in love. As such, it's about the most joyful and expansive and loving state of mind a human being is capable of...as long as one still has faith. If that faith is broken, however, as often happens, the emotional devastation that follows is simply terrible. For some people such faith (whether it be in the realm of religion or romance) can resurrect itself repeatedly, like a phoenix rising from its own ashes, but it's probably never quite as achingly pure and innocent in subsequent episodes as it was the first time around.

The story of Joan of Arc is an interesting one to demonstrate how great religious faith becomes synonymous with the highest love and social idealism, and with the willingness to risk all and sacrifice all in service to others. Read Mark Twain's amazing book "Joan of Arc" if you get the chance. His investigations into her life and his writing of the book turned him from a lifetime cynic and atheist into someone willing to consider the possibility that there were realities out there which he had overlooked. His final conclusion was that she had to have been inspired and assisted by God and by Angels...hard as that was for a man like Mark Twain to swallow.

I don't expect anyone here to necessarily swallow it if you're not inclined to, by the way, so you don't have to tell me that...cos I already know.

But you might enjoy the book anyway. Like all of Mark Twain's writings, it's extremely good. He considered it the most important thing he ever wrote, but it's not very well known. He published it under an assumed name, wanting people to simply take it on its own merits rather than on his reputation. Almost no one knew for some time that it was his book. Accordingly, it did not sell very well when first published, and it has remained much less known than his popular tales of life in the America of the late 1800s.